As the ongoing genocide in Gaza now spreads to war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the mass bombing of Lebanese citizens, this podcast is the first of a series of regular Friday features that examines current events to give them meaningful historical context. In this episode we explore the history of Israel’s sense of national identity from 1948 onwards. As Yishuv and Diaspora Jews (the later having survived genocide in Europe) encountered one another in the late 1940s and early 1950s deep seated
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Explaining History Podcast
For more than a decade, the Explaining History Podcast has helped listeners around the world make sense of modern history. What began in 2012 as a simple experiment—short, accessible episodes explaining major historical events—has grown into a long-running library of carefully researched, thoughtful explorations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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